This invention relates to packing elements for enhancing contact between two fluids.
Packing elements are typically loaded into a reaction chamber (or washing column or distilling tower) and have surfaces for deflecting the flow of two fluids (e.g., a gas rising and liquid falling) in the chamber.
Some packing elements are meant to be loaded into the chamber in a particular orientation. For example, Huber et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,679,537, disclose a cylindrical packing element which is loaded into a tubular chamber with a cylinder axis in line with the axis of the chamber. In one embodiment, each cylindrical packing element is made up of corrugated layers stacked so that the corrugations of adjacent layers cross each other. In another embodiment, a cylindrical packing element is formed by wrapping two overlaid sheets each having an impressed vee pattern. The vees of the two sheets have opposite orientations, and, when wrapped, vertices of the vees lie on a single plane normal to the axis of the cylinder.
Walker, U.S. Pat. No. 2,206,440, describes a heat transfer apparatus made up from a series of plates arranged in juxtaposition and in parallel planes to form screens. Pyramidal-like protuberances are provided at intervals along one surface of each plate. The protuberances are split to form sharp edged projections.
Lucien-Victor Gewiss, U.S. Pat. No. 3,433,692, describes a method for forming herringbone configurations for sandwich structures, said to be useful in heat exchangers. Sections from folded or corrugated sheets are cut and mated to form a corrugated herringbone configuration.
The layers of such packing elements may be made from various materials, for example, textile fabrics (i.e., guaze) stiffened by interwoven metal wires, metalic fabric, fiberglass, or sheet metal.
U.K. Patent 1,004,046, discloses perforating each corrugated layer by spaced apart oval perforations, and serrating the bottom edge of each layer.